Subconscious Mind

While we are aware of the powerful activities of our conscious minds, the relatively immense power of the subconscious mind functions silently in the background. It regulates a cornucopia of bodily functions while monitoring our sensory inputs, regulating our attitudes and behaviors and providing a bridge to the cosmos through universal mind. Our total sensory inputs alone account for roughly three million bits of data per second. In contrast, our conscious mind is capable of processing about sixteen bits per second.

Bruce Lipton (The Biology of Belief), using a computer analogy, refers to the subconscious mind as a hard drive that stores all of the programs that run our behaviors. He points out that most of these programs have been downloaded uncritically into our subconscious minds during a long window of impressionability in early childhood. This open window of malleability begins at conception and extends through early childhood until independent judgment arises in the young mind at about age ten. It accounts for the profound ability of young humans to master languages and learn an entire culture in a very short time. It also accounts for the internalization of the attitudes, behaviors and total world view of adults in the immediate vicinity of the child. These are swallowed whole and accepted as truths. These "truths" become the programs that control the attitudes, choices and behaviors exhibited throughout an entire human life. This is the basis of the Jesuit boast:"Give me a child to the age of seven and you may do whatever you wish with him afterward." The essential conditioning of the child's life has been laid down by that time.

Our ego consciousness resides in the conscious mind. We think that our identity lives there as well. We think that our choices are made there. We think that "we", as the ego self, are directing our lives. If we are relatively sophisticated about the role of thought in creating our world, we think that this conscious mind is the seat of that process of world making. We think that we can control our thoughts and therefore control our outcomes in life. This is a nice intellectual theory. It certainly feeds our ego. It is partially true but fatally incomplete.

Who is driving? The programs running in the subconscious mind, that's who. The ego-directed conscious mind is chattering away about "me, me, me" and my importance, my choices, my achievements, my control, blah, blah, blah, while the subconscious mind is silently, invisibly calling the shots from the background. So who are you anyway? You are the content of the various programs hardwired into your subconscious mind with a veneer of rationalizations overlaid by your conscious mind that smooth over the rough edges of your "self". Sorry.

This is pretty insulting to my big important "self". Beyond that, it leads to a feeling of hopelessness that sticks in my craw. Apparently, the realization of the control of human lives by subconscious programming has come to the attention of plenty of other people. This goes back into antiquity and extends to the operators of the self-improvement industry. It has become obvious to many that positive thinking doesn't work. It's like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It's purely a conscious mind activity that doesn't really touch the roots of behavior so it's partly delusional. So, what is to be done? We'll reprogram the subconscious, that's what.

This is an interesting task, this programing of the subconscious mind. There is very little actual contact between the conscious and subconscious compartments of the mind. The subconscious does not respond to ideas, that is, to talk. It responds to environmental inputs and to emotion. Environmental cues can directly trigger defensive action to protect the life and wellbeing of the individual. An observed pattern of movement might suggest the presence of a predator and cause the subconscious to trigger a fight or flight reaction. In addition to the train of physiological changes that are part of the fight or flight response, the conscious mind would register an emotion, fear, that corresponds to the perceived risk to the organism. The conscious mind in this case has shared in the biochemical arousal of the organism in response to a perceived threat. This demonstrates the existence of a functional link between the conscious and subconscious departments of mind.

This link between the departments of mind is a two way street. If the conscious mind perceives a threat in the environment and responds with fear, this fear is communicated to the subconscious mind which mobilizes the same fight or flight responses that are triggered by a direct environmental stimulus. This is an indirect, slower path to the same physiological changes. The subconscious mind, then, responds to signals from the conscious mind if they are emotional in nature or, at least, driven by emotion. Otherwise, it seems to pay no attention to the constant babblings of the conscious mind.

An interesting aspect of the subconscious is that it cannot seem to distinguish between its direct perceptions of the world and imagined perceptions of the world created by the creative conscious mind. It will respond to the imagined perceptions, that is the inventions of the conscious mind, as if they were actual perceptions as long as they are accompanied by emotion. In this way, it can be fooled. We can lie to it and it will do its best to make that lie a reality. This is a double edged sword. Worriers cause harm to themselves, both physiological (internal) and by the manifestation of negative outcomes (external) through this mechanism. At the same time, this is the key to changing the programming of the subconscious mind and, therefore, the manifested world of the individual. This is the path of breadcrumbs leading out of the forest.

Throughout history, people have devised a number of methods for reprogramming the subconscious mind. Some have been discovered unintentionally. Others have been the product of analytical, focused thought. Any number of variants of these schemes can be devised and practiced according to personal taste and inclinations. To the extent that they conform to the true nature of the conscious and subconscious departments of mind, they will all work. We are free to choose any that we are most comfortable with or to invent our own recipe based on our own intuitions. In any case, the proof of any method is in its outcomes. It must be personally tested. I suggest that we apply the test of Jesus:"By their fruits Ye shall know them".

I will return to this discussion in future posts. In the meantime, I invite you to help me to clarify my understanding. Talk back.

Gratitude

Life is a gift. It must be savored minute by minute. It must be cherished.

No one knows what paths it may take or when or how it will end. It is a good operating procedure to appreciate the gifts it brings and to say "thank you" often so that one is always feeling full and content. When the end comes, no regrets will be needed.

If you are living in a way that generates bitter regrets of unfulfillment at the thought of leaving, change your life. Do everything you can to get on a better road.

Look, we all want more. Life can be addicting that way. It's not a bad thing to leave the table with some appetite left. That's lively. Lively is good.

Our life path and conditions have been freely chosen by us in the superconscious interval between incarnations. We are, after all, spirits having a human experience. We are here to evolve toward universal loving kindness and oneness. Our universe is a benevolent one. Relax.

Obviously, I have a lot of explaining to do. I've made a lot of unsubstantiated claims. I'd like to explain how I got to this place in my mind without leaving the bounds of sense. And, I will, bit by bit, over time. Stick around and, please, talk back.

In the meantime, look up at the sky, take a deep breath and say thank you.

claim token

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We live in a world that contains no accidents. Everything that exists in our perception is there for a reason. There is no excess. Nothing is lost - ever. Every choice has a consequence. There are no free lunches.

The world is a teaching machine. It mirrors back my beliefs, my convictions, manifested in the "outer" conditions of my life. If I wish to know the content of my convictions, I merely need to examine those conditions. Those conditions are what I get for what I believe. Here is the point of power. I can change my beliefs. When I do, the conditions of my life will change.

Right there is a concise statement of the practical utility of philosophy. My world view creates the world I live in. What I give out comes back. Expectations invoke outcomes.

I am not interested in idle speculation. My investigations into the nature of reality eventually inform my behavior. There is no more practical field of study.

Check this out for yourself. Each life is an experimental subject ready to reveal wisdom to its observer. Each of us must find their own truth. Every bit of truth that is discovered changes the world. You do not contribute to the world by what you do but, rather, by what you are.

We humans are in the middle of a paradigm shift. We are transitioning from a materialistic, atomistic world view to one which is characterized by wholeness. Our ego-based, rationalistic approach has emphasized separateness: animate opposed to inanimate, person against person, species against species, belief against belief, species against planet. We see differences and distinctions and hold our selves as the center of the universe. Our attitude tends to be,"hooray for me, to hell with you."

We have enjoyed unprecedented material success by applying the mechanistic world view. We have also brought our species to the brink of extinction.

Science, one of mankind's crowning achievements, has provided the major conceptual tools for our conquest of the planet and all that lives within it. Now science, in probing the deep nature of matter, is beginning to expose a nature that deviates from the materialistic, deterministic model of reality that was formerly upheld. Now scientists are making discoveries that mirror statements found in mankind's most ancient spiritual texts.

We live in a time when diverse descriptions of the nature of reality are beginning to merge and to reinforce each other. We live in a time that will see a major shift in the consciousness of humanity as a whole. The beginnings of this epochal shift have long been underway. The pace of related changes is accelerating and becoming more apparent daily.

We humans are progressively realizing that all of existence is intimately interrelated. We are realizing that objectivity is a myth. We are realizing that the world resembles a great thought more than it resembles a great machine. We are recognizing the premier power of thought in the shaping of our world. We are realizing our kinship to all that is. In short, we humans are undergoing a rapid evolution of consciousness.

It is my goal to discuss the changes that I see and to hear about what you are seeing. It is my goal to connect with people who are, in some sense, like minded. Jump in, the water's fine.

INTRODUCTION

Here is the introduction to my upcoming e-book. I thought that it might serve the same purpose here.

I’ve always had a hunger to know the inside of reality, to see what makes things tick. This hunger expressed itself in curiosity about toys, tools and devices as well as people and animals and how they work. I’ve been a reader since early childhood and that has provided me with windows into other people, places and times. I had a chance to rub shoulders with ideas that I did not encounter in my immediate surroundings. I’ve been a tinkerer and a hands-on tool user since I was a mere twerp. I picked this up from my Dad. One of my early childhood toys was a truck carburetor that he gave me to tear down and put back together. All of this fed my analytical turn of mind.

By profession, I am a sculptor and a teacher with a fondness for art schools. Being an artist, I am no stranger to examining and inhabiting philosophical worldviews. I’ve delved into psychology, spirituality and consciousness in general through my ever-present reading as well as through meditation and experimentation with states of consciousness. Like all of us, I know things that came from personal experience that I am not able to explain to anyone else.

A few years ago, I began to write rants, articles or essays (whatever you want to call these things) about ideas that are important to me. I did this for my own pleasure and to clarify my own thinking. I have rarely shared any of this stuff with anyone. I was writing for me.

Gradually, I began to suspect that my writings, my thoughts, might have some utility for other people if only as grist for their mills to be used in clarifying their own thoughts. I determined to get this cluster of articles out into the world in the form of an e-book.

I flatter myself by thinking that I have figured out the nature of reality and the place of humans within it. I think that I have solved some human problems and found some broad guidelines about how to live out our human destiny.

Try these ideas on for size. Kick the tires. Take them out for a spin. If any of these thoughts are useful to you, you are welcome to them. If they are not, throw them out. Better yet, propose an alternative.

These articles are written in a kind of personal shorthand. They are suggestive rather than authoritative. I have not taken the time to lay out tightly reasoned arguments so you may have to connect the dots in places. It is my hope that it will be worth your while to do so.

In my heart of hearts, it is my wish that these thoughts can contribute in some small way toward the global evolution of human consciousness that is now underway. When the consciousness of a critical mass of humans shifts, the consciousness of the whole of humanity will flip over as well.

Here’s to a more loving world!